Virtual Scavenger Hunt Ideas

Why do people search for virtual scavenger hunt ideas? Some are looking for something to do with family and friends. Some are looking for something for their children and their friends to do. Probably those in the largest group, though, are looking for an online team building option for themselves and their colleagues.

The options fall into 3 main ideas categories:

• Physical scavenger hunts presented online
• Virtual scavenger hunts for things found online on various publicly available sites, using Google, Bing or some other search tool
• Virtual scavenger hunts contained within a site designed purely for the activity itself

Let’s delve into each of these categories in turn in a bit more detail.

Physical Scavenger Hunts

People looking for these are trying to save themselves time and effort in coming up with their own list of items to collect. They were very popular in the early days of pandemic lockdown. People came up with lists of everyday items commonly available in homes. The idea was that the first person to either collect an individual item or collect all of the items wins the game. As much fun as they were initially, people got bored with these fairly quickly. There’s only so many things that are interesting enough to collect and likely to be available in every home. In any case, the same people probably won each time.

Virtual Scavenger Hunts Across the Internet

In a way, these are very similar to the first category. People looking for these are also likely to be saving themselves time and effort for something that is simple in design. The big difference, of course, is that the participants are not getting up and doing things. Rather they are using their online searching skills to track down items. The main challenge with this form of virtual scavenger hunt is coming up with the list of items. They need to be possible to find on the Internet, but difficult enough that a simple Google or Bing search doesn’t simply come up with a list to choose from. Hence people search for ideas.

Virtual Scavenger Hunts Contained Within a Site

This category is very different to the first two. A site that is designed to hold a virtual scavenger hunt within itself will, most likely, be a professional site created for those wanting something a little different to the freely available other options. It might be designed purely for individual participation or one designed for teams. The latter will more likely be for professional online team building and best accessed through a laptop or desktop. The former will, more likely than not, be available through a downloadable app and played on smartphones.

Individual Apps

The best rated apps for online scavenging tend to be those that focus on “hidden objects”. Essentially, they are each a “Where’s Waldo” style game. Some are happy to be just that. Others go beyond that and incorporate an Adventure style game also. You can find Android hidden objects games here and iOS hidden objects games here.

Team Options

There are far fewer options for teams. Although with individual apps you can always set up your own leaderboard and have people within a team compete with everyone else, that kind of destroys the whole idea of building teams with such an activity. The good news is that they do exist, though. Our own MiniScavenge is a prime example of this. It’s been around for many years now, so it’s not a response to the pandemic. And it has had many, many thousands of participants over the years. So it’s tried and tested. And it is, of course, more than just a scavenger hunt.

Set in a choice of 3D “worlds”, that we call “scenes”, it is more than just an online scavenger hunt, of course. In addition to collecting particular items, teams are working together to find the answers to some interestingly presented clues and working together to solve some team puzzles. It’s a comprehensive, fun online team building solution that is much appreciated by participants and organizers alike.

You can book a demonstration here. If you’re interested in finding virtual scavenge hunt ideas, we’re convinced that you’ll enjoy looking at ours!